Real Talk With Raze - Teens are Drunk, and it's Pop's (Hip Hop) Fault

So...I woke up this morning, taking my usual morning piss..pouring the kid his cereal...I can't help but overhear the morning news on Fox 6 run a story about alcohol references in "pop music" songs and it's influence on teens. Well, thank God for DVRs because I ran it back and got my trusty HD Cam ready for quick recording. Pardon the quality...I only had about 9 mins of being awake here...LOL.



So, now that you've gotten to see what I heard/saw, I can get a lil serious.

I'M F*CKING TIRED OF MUSIC (specifically HIP HOP) BEING THE PROBLEM.

Seriously, there were a few glaring issues to be had with this story.

1) There were NO white or latino teens interviewed for this story. Which insinuates that they don't listen to hip hop (which is OBVIOUSLY false) and more importantly, that they don't have drinking issues.

2) They referred to the music of influence to be "pop music", yet only played clips of HIP HOP songs/videos. If you're taking issue with the influence of pop music, shouldn't you play a respectable sample of ALL pop music? I mean, when searching for pop music with alcohol references they couldn't have possibly missed the obvious lyrics of "T.G.I.F." by Katy Perry....could they have? Seriously, a song where they "took too many shots, were kicked out of a bar, made out and had sex with a stranger, streaked in the streets, skinny dipped"...well, you get the point.

Or how about Ke$ha's hit "Take it Off" where they "get smashed...knock over trash cans...", get naked in public, break bottles and more...all apparently as a celebration to NOT being stuck on Designated Driver duty.

Anyone noticing a pattern here?

They COULDN'T have missed those...two POP songs that are less than 2 years old, in favor of playing clips of Ludacris and T Pain songs that are more than 3-4yrs old...nah. That would be irresponsible journalism, right?

Well, THEY DID.

Here's my take. Are alcohol references prevalent in pop music today? YES. Are they prevalent in hip hop music as well? YES. Are they any more prevalent in Hip Hop vs traditional Pop music? That's up for debate. Where in hip hop, branding is essential, for Pop music the general reference to tequila or rum is more than sufficient. But as far as teens having drinking problems, blaming music's influence is once again, as it's always been, a weak shunning of the responsibility of GOOD PARENTING. I grew up in the 80's where you had hair rock bands and hip hop artists all writing songs about partying, getting smashed, and all around as much drunken debauchery as possible. Yet many kids my age, in my graduating class didn't have a drop of alcohol til they were well into their adulthood. The theme of the music of youth has always been the same, and unfortunately so has the attention span of counselors and lazy parents. They refuse to place the responsibility of teaching their children about the ills of underage drinking or how to responsibly be irresponsible...lol.

Here's  an idea; be more involved in your kid's lives. You don't have to host their parties or supply alcohol to minors. They're pretty proficient at finding it on their own. But if you know what type of person your kid is (the partying type, the popularity addict, etc), then make a strong concerted effort to acknowledge that they're more than likely going to parties, getting trashed and doing some irresponsible shit. We all know it's realistically impossible to lock our kids up til they're 18, but we CAN teach them how to be responsible in their journey toward adulthood and learning how to do "adult shit".

In closing, damn you Fox6. Damn you for once again perpetuating the notion of music being the scapegoat for bad, lazy, borderline absentee and irresponsible parenting. Damn you for shrouding your blatant crucifixion of Hip Hop under the guise of mislabeling it "Pop Music". Damn you for intentionally or unintentionally, racially charged journalism. Lastly, damn you for screwing up my morning bowl of Captain Crunch and Disney Junior with my son.